jon ascher illustration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Devon Devereaux, Publisher/Editor
(503) 314.8073 • devondevereaux@gmail.com
May, 2011

Cackling Imp Press announces the release of the acclaimed and highly anticipated graphic novel, “NeIL,” by Jon Ascher.

For Neil, finding the meaning of life just might cost the ultimate price!

Neil, our anti-hero, sifts through the maelstrom of his troubled life, looking for meaning in this modern-day fable, a black “dramedy.” His life is full of high jinks, love and loss. Mostly loss. As Neil feels increasingly taunted by his own life and surrounding environment, is he going mad? Or is someone, or some thing, out to get him? As his world starts to unravel, Neil unwittingly finds himself in the drivers’ seat of his own storybook, and he must choose how to end it!

This book paints a picture of Neil’s life, in childhood and adulthood, as an angry and troubled man. The seemingly slice-of-life story is fraught with unexpected twists of paranoia, leading into a maddening and unsettling psychological thrill ride which culminates in an ending that the Comic Book Collectors Blog calls “mind-blowing.”

Neil is a cerebral book, more comparable to a Paul Auster novel or an episode of “The Twilight Zone” than to any contemporary graphic novels. Suffice it to say that the storytelling is stylized, and at times stretches the limits of the comics medium itself.

Fully-painted, the art is a tour-de-force of illustration, at times evoking the best in contemporary painted comics like Sienkewicz and McKean. At other points it reminds us of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimpt. As Joshua Jones writes for the Nashville Comic Books Examiner:

“Reading this book is like walking through an art show while reading a comic book and experiencing perfect synchronicity. Through stylistic plot methods, the reader is immersed into Neil?s world. Dynamic paint stokes increase with intensity as the book moves forward, and it adds to the tone of the story.”

NeIL is available for pre-order at cacklingimppress.com, and hits stores in July.
50% of profits are being donated to a non-profit suicide prevention charity.

NeIL, graphic novel by jon ascher